Ten things you may not know about CSU at New Mexico

Posted By
Tom Kensler
On
November 15, 2013 @ 10:27 am
In
College Sports,Colorado State University,Football,Mountain West Conference |
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Kapri Bibbs of Colorado State University controls the ball against University of Nevada at Hughes Stadium. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

Here’s another weekly installment of “10 things you may not know” — about Colorado State at New Mexico.

As usual, special thanks to the sports information departments of the respective schools.

1. This is the final home game of the season for New Mexico, which stands 2-3 in homes games with victories over New Mexico State (66-17) and Air Force (45-37 last week). The Lobos complete their 2013 schedule with road games against arguably the top two teams in the Mountain West Conference: at Fresno State and at Boise State. Eighteen UNM seniors will play their final home game Saturday, including nine starters. They will be recognized with pregame introductions.

2. New Mexico typically does not beat itself. The Lobos are plus-1 in turnover margin for the season and are tied for third nationally in fewest penalty yards per game (29.1).

3. Colorado State leads the series 35-25 and holds an 18-14 advantage over the Lobos in games played in Albuquerque. Since 1989, the Rams have a 15-7 advantage in the series and have won the past three meetings.

4. CSU is coming off consecutive road victories, over Wyoming and Hawaii. The last time the Rams won three in a row away from Fort Collins was 2002 (Utah, Air Force and San Diego State).

6. New Mexico has the Mountain West’s top kick returner, Carlos Wiggins (27.5). But as a team, CSU tops the conference in kick-return average (25.4) and is ranked 13th nationally.

7. Although they are in bordering states, Colorado State does not have a player from New Mexico on its roster. And the Lobos have just two Coloradans: Sam Mabany, a freshman defensive end from Denver South High School, and Christian Rebhun, a redshirt-freshman tight end from Cherry Creek.

8. New Mexico’s defense may have the best assortment of first names in the country including Fatu (Ulale, DE), Dakota (Cox, LB), Dallas (Bollema, LB), Cranston (Jones, CB) and SaQwan (Edwards, CB).

9. New Mexico’s inside linebackers coach Kevin Cosgrove was linebackers coach at CSU in 1989 — Earle Bruce’s first year as Rams coach.

10. CSU ended the 2012 season, the first under coach Jim McElwain, with a 24-20 home victory over New Mexico to finish 4-8 for the season. For the Rams, Donnell Alexander rushed for 112 yards and Joe Hansley caught five passes for 102 yards.

Article printed from
The Field House:
http://blogs.denverpost.com/colleges